ONEX to invest USD 550 million in its two Greek repair yards
A major infrastructure investment programme is to start at ONEX Elefsis Shipyard in Greece on its drydocking facilities (Source: ONEX)
New York-based ONEX Shipyards and Technologies Group is to invest USD 550 million in modernising its two Greek ship repair yards: ONEX Elefsis, in Elefsina, on the Greek mainland, close to Piraeus, and ONEX Neorion Shipyard, on the Greek island of Syros. The investment is being made to increase each yard’s annual vessel throughput.
ONEX acquired Neorion Shipyard in 2019 and shortly after took over Elefsis Shipyard and turned around both loss-making yards. Up to the end of 2023 both repair yards have repaired 500+ vessels under ONEX ownership, 80% of which were Greek-owned ships.
The Syros-based yard repaired 438 of the vessels, while the Elefsina yard worked on 62 vessels. The 500th vessel to be repaired by the ONEX yards was the 36,900dwt 2005-built chemical tanker Olympic Glory, which completed repairs in January this year. The vessel is the ex Rainbow, which arrived in Syros on January 8th. With the latest infrastructure investment programme, ONEX expects to repair annually 300 vessels at each yard.
Supporting ONEX’s latest investment plans are US-based international Development Finance Corp (DFC), which recently signed a financing agreement with ONEX Elefsis Shipyard for a USD 125 million loan, as part of a broader recovery plan for the rehabilitation and modernisation of this yard. The DFC is the US federal government’s development finance institution.
ONEX plans to develop the shipyard based in Elefsina to repair and upgrade ships, particularly LNG tankers calling at the nearby Revithoussa LNG Terminal. The investment will also assist the shipyard in the construction of a 30MW solar farm to provide energy to the shipyard.
ONEX Elefsis Shipyard is also looking to move back into the repair of vessels operated by the Hellenic Navy and the US 6th Fleet. A consortium comprising Germany’s thyssenkrupp Marine Systems and Thales Nederland has just been awarded the contract to carry out the mid-life upgrade (MLU) of the Hellenic Navy’s four MEKO 200HS-class frigates and will sub-contract the shipyard part of this project to a yet to be named Greek yard. ONEX Elefsis Shipyard has three floating docks and one Panamax size graving dock, and can repair vessels up to 120,000dwt.
Undergoing repair at this yard on January 30th was the 50,236dwt 2008-built chemical tanker Horizon Aphrodite, owned by Athens-based Horizon Tankers and managed by V.Ships UK Ltd. Meanwhile, undergoing repair at the Syros yard on the same date was the 37,887dwt 2014-built chemical tanker Aldebaran, owned by Stork Marine Ltd. and managed by Greece’s Super-Eco Tankers Management Inc., Piraeus.
